Alex (Sawa) is one of many students embarking on Flight 180 (original title) on it’s way to France. Once on board he has a premonition that the plane is gonna crash, he becomes hysterical and gets kicked out of the plane along with five other students and one teacher. Sure enough the plane does crash, everybody dies and they have a new lease on life. But that lease expires very fast cause \"Death\" doesn’t like missing accounts and he’s coming back to collect. Don’t bother locking the doors and shutting the windows…this is \"Death\" we’re talking about…you can’t escape him!

THE LOWDOWN

This movie rocked my palace. It’s a chilling, hypnotic, gory and suspenseful ride. I have never seen a plane crash on film that freaked me out like the one in this movie. I’m never flying again… I also love the fact that \"Death\" is never shown physically, he’s just a sadistic presence that makes everything that surrounds the characters a possible threat to their existence. He’s scarier than a guy with a hook or some dude with a chainsaw cause you can’t kill him…all you can do is out think him and pray he never catches up. Aside from being frightening, this movie touches a lot of issues, namely the concept of fate, death’s design and the power of destiny. It’s nice to watch a horror movie that’s actually scary and this one is on many levels. Death is something we all can relate too and he’ll come for all of us one day. This film is more than a genre flick, it’s an exploration of our deepest fear…the fear of dying.

GORE

Many juicy bits. Death is not very nice and likes to kill his victims a lot. We get a great beheading that had me shouting out loud, a vicious hanging scene and Miss Newton’s (Cloke) demise is one for the books…all the kill scenes are creative, bloody and full of suspense…I wont mess your ride by detailing them all to you…

ACTING

Devon Sawa (Alex) gives a multi-layered performance. Rational, impulsive, insane are all levels that his character goes through and Sawa is up for the challenge. This movie will step up his career, I’m sure of it. Ali Larter (Clear) also holds her own, she’s strong yet vulnerable and she coveys the character’s underlying sadness perfectly. This part is a step up from the \"whip cream\" bimbo she played in \"Varsity Blues\" fer sure. Amanda Detmer (Terry) doesn’t do much but wear too much makeup and die in a great way. Kerr Smith (Carter) is annoying, his character his always pissed off, always violent and very irrational. It’s not so much that Kerr is bad…more to do with the way is character is written.

Chad E Donnela gives a funny, sympathetic performance and it’s nice to see him without makeup (like he did in Disturbing Behavior as the pigmently challenged U.V.). Kristen Cloke (Miss Newton) is a nervous wreck in this film, always on the brink of tears, must have been hard on her to play such an emotional mess…congrats babe. Tony Todd (Undertaker) has one scene and he knows it. He butters the toast on both sides and forgets that he’s NOT the Candyman in this film. Come on dude, you’re usually a competent actor…why did you think this was Candyman 4??? His scene is weak and he took me out of the film for a minute. They should cut his scene out. He’s the only actor that hams it up and the scene is just there to explain to the audience what’s going on…we didn’t need it…we know what’s going on…

T & A

The movie doesn’t have time for that, it has death on its tail….

DIRECTING

Wong’s X-Files stint comes in handy for this one. He certainly knows how to set up a dark, gloomy mood and knows a thing or two about suspense. The movie is filled with subtleties that this viewer greatly appreciates…I love that every mundane object has the possibility of being a murder weapon, Wong loves to play on that and he does it well…Good first show.

SOUNDTRACK

The score is mainly non-existent but is chilling enough when it appears, a few rock songs sneak their way in.

BOTTOM LINE

A well done, serious horror movie, that’s rare these days especially when teens are involved. It has it’s flaws…Tony Todd’s appearance and the stereotypical FBI agents but we forgive them fast. I saw this movie with JoBlo the man himself. Stepping into the car after the flick we both felt a bit creeped out. But the roof hit the fan when JoBlo turned on the radio and there was a song playing…the song’s chorus was \"you’re gonna die today\". It gave us both the willies. It’s rare that a horror movie stays with you after you leave the theater but this one did. BTW here’s the way to beat death: live your life.

BULL'S EYE

Jeffrey Reddick started it all by writing a 12 page treatment followed by a first draft of Final Destination’s script. Glen Morgan and James Wong then took over.